Weddings are infinitely fascinating to me because of the way in which they combine the personal and the public; the monumental and the intimate; the choreographed and the unexpected; big emotions and small details; serenity and humour.

My style is relatively fly-on-the-wall. I aim to create a picture-story of the bride's day, starting as she gets ready and ending with the first dance. As a photographer the challenge is not only to recognise and record photo-opportunities, but also to anticipate, facilitate or even occasionally create them - especially enduring images of the couple.

Couple portraits

I would urge every couple to schedule 20 minutes away from the madding crowd during which they can have a private moment together and I can photograph them, with only the occasional request for a pose or Eskimo kiss (nose tips touching as opposed to the French variant!).

There are two scenes I particularly aim for in couple portraits. One is to capture the couple's closeness which, apart from the stock in trade kisses and eye-gazing of wedding portraits, I seek in images of the couple as they walk hand in hand, entire unto themselves, oblivious of the camera.

The other is to place the couple's intimacy in a public setting by using architectural features like arches. Windows and doorways obviously symbolise new beginnings, but a private kiss framed by a monumental arch also conveys the private/public duality of the day, and communicates the institutional context and sanction of wedding vows. This effect can also be achieved through group portraits in which the guests applaud the couple's sealing kiss. Alternatively, for couples who prefer a pantheistic to an institutional blessing, an avenue of trees or even the overarching dome of the sky can similarly situate the wedding vows as part of a greater whole.

Metamorphoses

The highlights of a wedding day for me involve three moments of metamorphosis. The first is the fascination of watching a girl in jeans or tracksuits transform herself into the most beautiful woman she has ever been. There is a very serene moment (no matter how late she is running!), as the bride-to-be looks at herself in the mirror and faces herself as the newly emerged bride-that-is.

The second metamorphosis occurs when the priest meets the bridal party with outstretched arms at the church door. As he turns around to walk down the aisle, he seems to turn all the chaos and anxiety which so often characterises the countdown, into the calm yet joyful choreography of the rest of the day.

The third moment I focus on is more convention ridden and involves the contrast between the bride as she walks into the church on the arm of her father or other relation, and the newly-wed wife as she walks out on the arm of her husband. The handover involved seems so anachronistic that it is not surprising that it is no longer a feature of every wedding. But the fact that it does still happen, and the emotional charge involved, provide a rare and poignant photo-opportunity in those weddings where the bride is 'given away'. The looks of reassurance exchanged between father and daughter are replaced by the victory smiles of the newlyweds within the space of a short hour, and the irreversible category-shift they reflect can be captured without the photographer ever having to move from the spot!

But apart from a personal interest in the fixed and flux, these three highlights are important to me because of what they signify.

The moment of self-realisation at the mirror does not spell out the fairytale ending 'and they lived happily ever after', but rather asserts (or at least has the potential to assert), that having realised her dreams in this one respect, the girl at the mirror is resourceful enough to do so on other occasions and in other ways, as indeed is the groom. The moment at the mirror is about self-fulfilment, and marriage is in part about accommodating and encouraging it.

The second moment of metamorphosis symbolises to me the collaboration and confluence which is a necessary counter-balance to the threat of self-centredness in self-fulfilment. The disparate and possibly even conflicting activities and interests which characterise the lives of two individuals who happen to be lovers, become transformed into the common interest and harmonious choreography of the 'pas de deux' which (optimally if not always easily) results from the priest's blessing of their union and society's sanction of their marital status.

Finally, with regard to the rituals which take place at the altar and turn lovers into spouses, I prefer to capture these from a distance with a telephoto lens, perhaps even with some foreground flora or frame in order to suggest a voyeur's perspective on the mystery and magic of ritual. That same mystery and magic to me symbolises marital love itself - that special and ineffable connection between two people not only in love, but committed to that love and to each other.

If I were to drink on the job, I would toast the couple on continued self-fulfilment, the smooth confluence of hitherto distinct purposes, and the magic of love! As it is, I find it a great privilege to witness weddings, and consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to contribute through my photography to a couple's happiness.